China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co Ltd, or CPIC, said Sunday that its 2012 net profit dropped by 38.9 percent year-on-year due to decrease of investment yield and slowdown of business growth. [Jing Wei / Asianewsphoto]

SHANGHAI -- China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co Ltd, or CPIC, said Sunday that its 2012 net profit dropped by 38.9 percent year-on-year due to decrease of investment yield and slowdown of business growth.

Its net profit hit 5.077 billion yuan ($809.6 million) last year, down 38.9 percent from 8.313 billion yuan in 2011, according to its annual report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Affected by slowdown of the overall economic growth, sluggish capital market and cyclical adjustment of the industry, the company recorded gross written premiums of 93.461 billion yuan in 2012 from life insurance business, up 0.3 percent from the previous year, it said.

Premiums from new policies amounted to 37.333 billion yuan in 2012, representing a decrease of 20.5 percent over the same period of 2011 while premiums from renewed policies amounted to 56.128 billion yuan, up 21.3 percent year-on-year, it said.

Basic earnings per share dropped drastically from 0.97 yuan in 2011 to 0.59 yuan in 2012, it said.

The Shanghai-based CPIC is a major insurance company in China. It is listed both in Shanghai and Hong Kong.